Canon Powershot G11 Review

Operating speed, AF, Other Features

The Canon Powershot G11 isn't exactly a speed demon compared to a DSLR, but it's not bad for a digicam. It takes under a second to wake up and extend the lens when it's powered up. In continuous shooting mode you can take about 1.1 frames/sec when saving JPEG files, dropping to around 0.9 frame/sec if you're shooting RAW files. In one shot mode it's going to take between 1 and 2 seconds before you can take another shot.

Autofocus is pretty good though again not blazingly fast. It's a little quicker at the wide end of the range (under 0.5s) than it is at the telephoto end (under 1s). Again, OK by digicam standards, slow by DSLR standards. There is a very effective and pretty bright AF assist light (which is purple/blue rather then the typical red) which comes into operation when the G11 has trouble focusing. AF seems accurate. I didn't see any problems when using AF for lens resolution testing. The G11 has a manual focus mode in which the center of the LCD screen shows a magnified image. There's also a distance scale displayed in manual focus mode.

AF also works fine in Macro focusing mode, which allows focus on a subject within 1cm of the front of the lens when the lens is at its widest setting. In this mode it can fill the frame with a subject the size of a postage stamp (though there is significant barrel distortion).

The Canon Powershot lacks one feature that seems to be found on just about every new digicam and DSLR and that is HD video. The G11 doesn't have it. It does have SD VGA video (640 x 480 pixels at 30fps) and it has a QVGA mode (320 x 240 at 30 fps), both with mono sound.. Why it doesn't have HD video isn't 100% clear, though Canon have commented that it's a technical issue. It may be related to the CCD sensor since the Powershot S90, which uses the same sensor, doesn't have HD video either. Whether the lack of HD video matters to you or not depends on your application for the camera. At least it has regular SD video. My guess is that you'll probably see HD video on the G12 though!

Unusually for a digicam, the G11 accepts a wired remote and it has a hotshoe which is fully compatible with the current line of EX series Canon speedlites. The built in flash suffers from the same problem as all digicam flashes in that the power is low, the recycle time is slow (up to 10 seconds worst case) and the flash is close to the axis of the lens which can make red-eye worse. Still, it's useful to have a built in flash for those times when you need it and when you aren't carrying a Speedlite (which would probably be bigger then the camera!).

There's an HDMI output for displaying images directly to an HDMI compatible TV, as well as a regular composite video outlet (integrated into the mini-USB connector). No HDMI cable is supplied. The wired remote connector is compatible with the wired remote for the Digital Rebel DSLRs (the RS-60E3 Remote Switch).

NEXT: Lens and resolution